Promoting Good Governance
By Nontlantla Skenjana
Afesis-corplan hosted a Good Governance Learning Network (GGLN) sponsored seminar on Friday, 28 August 2009, where the topic of discussion was “Promoting Good Governance in Local Government: the Ehlanzeni District Municipality Good Governance Surveys (GGS) Case Study”.
The objective of the seminar was to critically assess how the GGS can enhance accountability and public participation in order to assist local government officials in providing interventions that respond to citizens’ needs.
GGS is a survey tool developed by Afesis-corplan partly to give effect to key principles outlined in the White Paper on Local Government:
• Political leaders must remain accountable and operate within their electoral mandate.
• Citizens as individuals or groups must retain the opportunity for continuous input into local policies and practices.
• Service consumers must have influence over the way services are delivered.
• Some form of co-operation or partnership must occur between civil society and the local state to assist in development.
State of Local Government
Dr Wela Manona, a Senior Lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, discussed the state of local government ahead of the 2011 elections. He gave a critical analysis of the state of local government and the governance landscape. He reflected on the recorded success stories of local government and noted that most are quantitative and not qualitative, resulting in low levels of satisfaction with service delivery. He noted that some of the concerns were resulting from lack of public confidence in local government’s governance practices as a cornerstone of reconstruction and sustainable development.
Dr Manona identified four pillars for good governance, namely transparency, accountability, participation and predictability, which would facilitate civil society participation and compliance with the rule of law. He further discussed the challenges that influence delivery of services and civil society participation in governance. These include:
• Government programmes have limited effectiveness, because of the lack of cooperation between government spheres, as per the Intergovernmental Relations Framework, and the lack of flow between municipal strategic documents, such as the Integrated Development Plan and the Budget.
• Anti-corruption strategies are either not recognised or not effective, resulting in corruption at local municipal levels. The failure to enforce the rule of law has led to a collapse of municipal services. In addition, by-laws are not enforced and the public is not made aware of them either.
• Gaps exist in the communication between local government representatives and the local citizens. This leads to the inefficient use of accountability systems and mechanisms.
• Public participation is implemented for compliance, rather than a genuine effort at attaining good governance. Municipalities call the legislated public participation forums, but then do not take citizens’ inputs forward for further discussion and implementation. Ward committees and communities are also not correctly capacitated to engage in local government matters, which mean they cannot make meaningful inputs in local governance.
• One of the core principles of the Constitution, re-iterated by the Batho Pele principles, is equity. Municipalities must know the demographics of their populations so that they are able to mainstream equity into all their activities, taking the gender and special needs of its citizens into consideration.
Promoting Public Participation
The Afrobarometer, an independent, nonpartisan research project, measures the social, political and economic atmosphere in Africa. The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) is the core partner in facilitating national public attitude surveys for the purposes of influencing national and global policy discussions and advancing democracy in Africa by promoting the voice of the general public.
Ms Ismail pointed out that although the AfroBarometer had conducted various surveys there has been mixed reception from all stakeholders, particularly government institutions. One of the key concerns has been defensiveness by state institutions unwillingness to accept the unflattering findings. However, publicity of the survey results and recommendations have helped in some instances to force the institutions to open up debates and discussions on points of dispute.
The Ehlanzeni Case Study
Mr Peter Kimemia, of Afesis-corplan, presented the Ehlanzeni District Municipality GGS Report, based on the report submitted to the municipalities. He explained the GGS as a perceptions-based research tool, which focuses on local government decision-making, public participation and consultation, transparency, disclosure, corruption and service delivery. In his presentation it was clear that the role of ward committees was critical in the public participation process. However, they needed to be capacitated financially and technically for them to be able to fulfil their responsibilities. Mr Kimemia also highlighted the need to take into consideration barriers that could be caused by language and venues of council meetings.
The Good Governance Surveys were conducted in the Ehlanzeni District in partnership with the PlanAct a Johannesburg NGO. PlanAct’s Malachia Mathoho’s responsibility was to assess how GGS affected the District directly and indirectly. As a recommendation, Mr Mathoho pointed out the importance of civil society involvement in governance. He also highlighted the importance of community organisations, private sector and citizen participation. He emphasized the role of the district municipality in monitoring corruption in local municipalities and capacitating ward committees. One concern raised in his presentation is the domination of one political party, which led to emphasis of party loyalty at the expense of service delivery. He indicated that capacity building of ward committees would assist in enhancing accountability.
Assessing GGS in the Cacadu District
Before the Ehlanzeni DM’s survey, the GGS had been conducted in the Cacadu District Municipality’s nine local municipalities during the 2007/2008 financial year. Among the issues that emerged was the observation that perception-based research findings often lead to resistance within municipalities, regarding the acceptance of the findings. However, Ms Unati Daniels from Cacadu DM acknowledged that, if municipalities did accept and act on the GGS Report and recommendations, some of the challenges currently being faced ¬ by the municipalities as a result of public dissatisfaction with service delivery would have been addressed. She also shared the importance of an effective communication strategy as communication proved to be a challenge at the inception and at the conclusion of the project. It was acknowledged that GGS could be used regularly to assess public satisfaction and that its recommendations do definitely add value to the Integrated Development Plan and the Annual Reports prepared by the municipalities.
Afesis-corplan hosted a Good Governance Learning Network (GGLN) sponsored seminar on Friday, 28 August 2009, where the topic of discussion was “Promoting Good Governance in Local Government: the Ehlanzeni District Municipality Good Governance Surveys (GGS) Case Study”.
The objective of the seminar was to critically assess how the GGS can enhance accountability and public participation in order to assist local government officials in providing interventions that respond to citizens’ needs.
GGS is a survey tool developed by Afesis-corplan partly to give effect to key principles outlined in the White Paper on Local Government:
• Political leaders must remain accountable and operate within their electoral mandate.
• Citizens as individuals or groups must retain the opportunity for continuous input into local policies and practices.
• Service consumers must have influence over the way services are delivered.
• Some form of co-operation or partnership must occur between civil society and the local state to assist in development.
State of Local Government
Dr Wela Manona, a Senior Lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, discussed the state of local government ahead of the 2011 elections. He gave a critical analysis of the state of local government and the governance landscape. He reflected on the recorded success stories of local government and noted that most are quantitative and not qualitative, resulting in low levels of satisfaction with service delivery. He noted that some of the concerns were resulting from lack of public confidence in local government’s governance practices as a cornerstone of reconstruction and sustainable development.
Dr Manona identified four pillars for good governance, namely transparency, accountability, participation and predictability, which would facilitate civil society participation and compliance with the rule of law. He further discussed the challenges that influence delivery of services and civil society participation in governance. These include:
• Government programmes have limited effectiveness, because of the lack of cooperation between government spheres, as per the Intergovernmental Relations Framework, and the lack of flow between municipal strategic documents, such as the Integrated Development Plan and the Budget.
• Anti-corruption strategies are either not recognised or not effective, resulting in corruption at local municipal levels. The failure to enforce the rule of law has led to a collapse of municipal services. In addition, by-laws are not enforced and the public is not made aware of them either.
• Gaps exist in the communication between local government representatives and the local citizens. This leads to the inefficient use of accountability systems and mechanisms.
• Public participation is implemented for compliance, rather than a genuine effort at attaining good governance. Municipalities call the legislated public participation forums, but then do not take citizens’ inputs forward for further discussion and implementation. Ward committees and communities are also not correctly capacitated to engage in local government matters, which mean they cannot make meaningful inputs in local governance.
• One of the core principles of the Constitution, re-iterated by the Batho Pele principles, is equity. Municipalities must know the demographics of their populations so that they are able to mainstream equity into all their activities, taking the gender and special needs of its citizens into consideration.
Promoting Public Participation
The Afrobarometer, an independent, nonpartisan research project, measures the social, political and economic atmosphere in Africa. The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) is the core partner in facilitating national public attitude surveys for the purposes of influencing national and global policy discussions and advancing democracy in Africa by promoting the voice of the general public.
Ms Ismail pointed out that although the AfroBarometer had conducted various surveys there has been mixed reception from all stakeholders, particularly government institutions. One of the key concerns has been defensiveness by state institutions unwillingness to accept the unflattering findings. However, publicity of the survey results and recommendations have helped in some instances to force the institutions to open up debates and discussions on points of dispute.
The Ehlanzeni Case Study
Mr Peter Kimemia, of Afesis-corplan, presented the Ehlanzeni District Municipality GGS Report, based on the report submitted to the municipalities. He explained the GGS as a perceptions-based research tool, which focuses on local government decision-making, public participation and consultation, transparency, disclosure, corruption and service delivery. In his presentation it was clear that the role of ward committees was critical in the public participation process. However, they needed to be capacitated financially and technically for them to be able to fulfil their responsibilities. Mr Kimemia also highlighted the need to take into consideration barriers that could be caused by language and venues of council meetings.
The Good Governance Surveys were conducted in the Ehlanzeni District in partnership with the PlanAct a Johannesburg NGO. PlanAct’s Malachia Mathoho’s responsibility was to assess how GGS affected the District directly and indirectly. As a recommendation, Mr Mathoho pointed out the importance of civil society involvement in governance. He also highlighted the importance of community organisations, private sector and citizen participation. He emphasized the role of the district municipality in monitoring corruption in local municipalities and capacitating ward committees. One concern raised in his presentation is the domination of one political party, which led to emphasis of party loyalty at the expense of service delivery. He indicated that capacity building of ward committees would assist in enhancing accountability.
Assessing GGS in the Cacadu District
Before the Ehlanzeni DM’s survey, the GGS had been conducted in the Cacadu District Municipality’s nine local municipalities during the 2007/2008 financial year. Among the issues that emerged was the observation that perception-based research findings often lead to resistance within municipalities, regarding the acceptance of the findings. However, Ms Unati Daniels from Cacadu DM acknowledged that, if municipalities did accept and act on the GGS Report and recommendations, some of the challenges currently being faced ¬ by the municipalities as a result of public dissatisfaction with service delivery would have been addressed. She also shared the importance of an effective communication strategy as communication proved to be a challenge at the inception and at the conclusion of the project. It was acknowledged that GGS could be used regularly to assess public satisfaction and that its recommendations do definitely add value to the Integrated Development Plan and the Annual Reports prepared by the municipalities.